Flights packed with ready-made meals, medicines and doctors were on Wednesday arriving in countries ravaged by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean which has left almost 70 000 people, half of them children, dead.

The Vatican secretly issued instructions to the Catholic church in France not to return Jewish children to their families after the second world war, it emerged on Tuesday. The children were entrusted to the church’s care to save them from the death camps.

The first much-needed supplies — shelter, medicine, food and water — together with teams of relief workers began to reach the disaster region to offer help to the survivors. But aid experts warned that without efficient coordination — most importantly, a firm lead from the United Nations — many more lives are bound to be lost in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The death toll in the Asian tsunami disaster topped 60 000 on Tuesday night, with world health chiefs warning that disease could kill as many people again if fresh water and medicine do not reach stricken areas soon. Across the Indian Ocean rim, stories of incredible devastation emerged as one of the largest and most complex relief efforts ever undertaken swung into action.